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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

10 Killed in Mass Shooting at Boulder, Colorado Supermarket; Still No Motive for Deadly Spa Shootings in Georgia; Almost One in Four Americans Have Received at Least One Dose; Israelis Head to Polls for Fourth Election in Two Years; Blinken Looks to Rebuild Relationships at NATO Summit; Putin Announces He Will Receive Coronavirus Vaccine; DoorDash to Deliver At-Home Covid Testing Kits. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 23, 2021 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome back to EARLY START this morning, I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. Almost 30 minutes past the hour in New York. And we begin this half hour with the big breaking news out of Boulder, Colorado, where ten people were shoot and killed at the King Sooper supermarket. Among them a police officer. A suspect in custody this morning who police say is being treated for injuries. So far police have not determined a motive here but the attack itself just harrowing as gunfire sent shoppers running for their lives. One person recorded this terrifying moment at the store's entrance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know if there is a shooter, active shooter somewhere. Could be in the store.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just went in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is still here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. Guys, we have people down inside King's Soopers. Look, there's -- holy (BLEEP). (BLEEP).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: You can hear the gunshots there. Family members and other witnesses at the scene describing what happened inside that store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got the call from my daughter that my grandchildren and my son-in-law walked into the pharmacy for him to get a COVID-19 shot and the shooter came in, shot the woman in front of them, they hid, ran upstairs were hiding in a coat closet for the last hour and trying to stay in contact with my daughter. They're OK.

RYAN BOROWSKI, COLORADO SUPERMARKET SHOOTING WITNESS: This feels like the safest spot in America and I just nearly got killed for getting a soda, you know, and a bag of chips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: There for a bag of chips and COVID shot. Officials have been working to identify the victims as quickly as possible. The Boulder Police Department named 51-year-old Eric Talley as the officer killed in the shooting.

ROMANS: A procession was held to honor the fallen officer. He is a father of seven. And who the Boulder Police Chief described as a hero. The local prosecutor promising justice for all of the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL DOUGHERTY, BOULDER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I also want to stress how incredibly sorry I am for all the victims who were killed at King Soopers. These were people going about their day, doing their food shopping and their lives were cut abruptly and tragedy short by the shooter who is now in custody. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will secure justice and do everything we must do to get justice in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: CNN's Lucy Kafanov who is on the ground for us in Boulder. She has the latest -- Lucy.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, Boulder is still reeling from the tragedy that took place here. Ten people losing their lives, one of them 51-year-old Boulder Police Department Officer Eric Talley.

We understand from authorities that at around 2:30 p.m. local time they started getting frantic 911 calls reporting an active shooter in the area. He was described as someone with a patrol rifle.

We understand that officers responded to the scene, Eric Talley, again, was one of the first, he was shot, he lost his life. There is no one who is injured except for the suspect who is in custody, that's according to officials. We understand that the suspect is in custody, he was taken to hospital for those injuries and that's really all we know. We know nothing about motive or what exactly let to the events that took place today.

The district attorney described this as a terrible and horrific mass shooting. He said this is going to be a painstaking investigation. We also understand from the Boulder police chief that this is a complex investigation that's going to take no less than five days to complete. And we did hear from Governor Jared Polis of Colorado, who said -- The families of these victims, and I quote, our fellow Coloradoans, my neighbors, are hearing the devastating news that their loved one who simply woke up and went to work this morning or ran out to pick up eggs won't be coming home. Today we saw the face of evil. I'm grieving with my community and all Coloradoans.

We do expect more details throughout the day on Tuesday about the victims and potentially the suspect who is in custody, but this is just the beginning of what's likely to be a long investigation. Christine, Laura, back to you.

ROMANS: Thank you Lucy for that. You know, Boulder is now the second deadly mass shooting in a week, the sixth this year. In Atlanta, police still not talking about the motive behind the massacre at three spas that left eight people dead, including six Asian women. We get more and that story now from CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:35:00]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Laura and Christine, this still remains an active investigation. We did learn though from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department that they would no longer be sharing any information before this moves to court. We're not even sure when the first court appearance will be for the suspected shooter. But we did talk to a man who was actually inside the spa when the shooting started. He survived and he believes his massage therapist saved his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was by the door, that's when I jumped behind the bed. And then once she opened up that door, I heard that third gunshot and she actually dropped and I'm pretty sure she got shot in her head.

YOUNG: You can understand why Marcus Lyon feels like the therapist stepping out in the hallway ended up saving him. Is a lot of questions in terms of what happens next with this investigation, but we do know that there are at least four investigations ongoing as we speak -- Laura and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Ryan Young thank you for that.

This just into CNN, a firefighter is missing, and some residents are unaccounted for at a fire at a senior citizens center in upstate New York. You're looking at this video here just in from the scene, shows the building fully engulfed by that fire. And this is in Spring Valley, New York, about 40 miles north of New York City, close to the New Jersey border. There's no word how many of the residents are unaccounted for at this point. We are going to bring you more information about this as soon as it's available.

All right, to coronavirus now. Nearly one in four Americans have now received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. The latest data from the CDC shows nearly 83 million people in the United States are at least partially vaccinated and about 45 million or one in eight Americans are fully vaccinated. White House COVID adviser Andy Slavitt says the rate of vaccination has skyrocketed since President Biden came into office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE COVID RESPONSE COORDINATOR: We are now vaccinating about 2.5 billion people per day, up from 900,000 when we arrived. This weekend was the first time that the U.S. reported vaccinating more than 3 million people on consecutive days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Whether the vaccine supply will ramp up to keep up the pace with expanding eligibility is another question. Slavitt indicating the White House isn't so sure the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will meet its self-imposed deadline to deliver 20 million doses by the end of this month.

ROMANS: Regeneron says the latest trial for its treatment of COVID-19 showed early use of the drug reduced the risk hospitalization for death by 70 percent. The company says even at a lower dose the treatment was nearly as effective. The FDA approved Regeneron's antibody cocktail for emergency use back in November. They now plan to seek authorization of a lower dose which would allow them to produce doses faster.

JARRETT: A new setback for the AstraZeneca vaccine. Overnight federal health officials said the company may have included outdated information from a large clinical trial in the U.S. Just yesterday AstraZeneca said the trial showed its vaccine was 79 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illness. Officials urged the company to ensure the most accurate up to date information be released as soon as possible. No response from the company yet.

ROMANS: Federal officials are in a race to avoid another surge of new cases urging local leaders to slow down on relaxing health precautions even as COVID vaccinations gather speed nationwide. You know, officials are worried Americans are just too impatient for life to go back to normal. CNN's Nick Watt has more from Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Christine and Laura, New York City, the biggest school district in the nation just welcomed high schoolers back into the classroom in 488 high schools.

Here in Los Angeles the second biggest district in the nation they just cut a deal with the union that should get high schoolers back towards the end of April.

Meanwhile, some concern about what college kids, spring breakers, are up to down in Florida. A lot of partying, not a lot of masks. And couple that with the fact that Sunday was the busiest travel day of this entire pandemic. Some people including the CDC director are concerned about a fourth surge.

ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: We are at a critical point in this pandemic. A fork in the road where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take. We must act now, and I am worried that if we don't take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge. Just as we are seeing in Europe right now. And just as we are so aggressively scaling up vaccination.

WATT: Other medical experts say probably won't happen partly because so many people have been infected already and also so many people have been vaccinated already. Every American adult should be eligible for a vaccination by May 1st according to the Biden administration. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:40:00]

ROMANS: We all know that COVID has changed the economy in so many ways. One bright spot has been the housing market. It is a seller's market, finding a home still a challenge for house hunters right now. Look at the inventory data, homes for sale a record low just over 1 million homes in February. Look how much that's down. That's down a record 30 percent from last year.

Homes sold in February stayed on the market for a record low of just 20 days. In the most popular parts of the market those are homes that are selling between $250,000 and $500,000. Those homes were on the market for just two weeks. The median home price is now 16 percent higher than last year, prices across the country seeing double digit gains.

Even though the market is doing better than its pre-pandemic levels, the number of home sales dropped nearly 7 percent from January. Higher prices caused by that low inventory combined with slowly rising interest rates may make it harder for many buyers to find homes but there is real action in the real estate market right now. A lot of people are moving, trying to find a better place in the work from home environment and maybe in hybrid work from home going forward. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:45:00]

ROMANS: All right, we are following this breaking news story out of Boulder, Colorado. We are going to get more details and bring those to you when we have them. That of course is the big coverage this morning, domestically.

But internationally the Secretary of State Tony Blinken hoping to rebuild broken relationships with long-standing allies at this week's NATO summit, that's happening in Brussels. Now at the heart this NATO summit the 2030 initiative to future proof the alliance, ministers also plan to tackle NATO's presence in Afghanistan. We're going to talk to Nic Robertson in London for this in just a

second, but first we have the Israeli election news. In Israel voters are leading to the polls today in the country's fourth general election in less than two years. The contest is seen primarily as a nationwide referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu. The nation's longest serving Prime Minister. CNN's Hadas Gold live in Jerusalem with more for us. Bring us up to speed -- Hadas.

HADAS GOLD, CNN REPORTER, EUROPEAN POLITICS, MEDIA AND BUSINESS: So voting is well under way here in Jerusalem. We are actually at a special coronavirus polling station for people who are in quarantine. They drive up through to these tents, cast their ballots and drive away. And that's really what's been dominating this election, unlike last year where Donald Trump was a huge part of Prime Minister Netanyahu's campaign, this year it's all about the coronavirus and the success of the vaccine rollout.

However, it's not clear that these vaccines that have brought a sense of normalcy back to this country are necessarily giving Netanyahu a huge boost. The most recent polls don't show him increasing in his numbers necessarily. But also neither for his opponents who range from a former television anchor to challengers within his own party.

How it works here in Israel, after the election tonight even if Netanyahu has the most number of seats, he will need to form a coalition with other parties and right now it doesn't seem like either the pro-Netanyahu block or the anti-Netanyahu block necessarily have the numbers to get them to the majority in the Israeli Parliament.

So what that means is tomorrow night it may actually be the smaller parties who will become the king makers. Even though they may only win a handful of seats, say ten or seven, that could be just enough to put Netanyahu over the edge to win the election, but right now the outcome seems completely unclear.

ROMANS: Unclear, fourth election, Hadas, in two years. Can a conclusive outcome be expected this time?

GOLD: In fact, most analysts think that either Netanyahu may just squeak through or it may be hard to believe, but if it is inconclusive, if nobody can bring together a governing majority to get them over the 61 seats that they need to get them to have a majority in the Parliament we could actually be looking at another round of election, a fifth election just in the next few months.

ROMANS: All right, Hadas Gold for us this morning in Jerusalem. Thank you. Keep us posted. Stay tuned on the Israeli election story.

Meantime, to Brussels now, where the NATO summit is happening. Our Nic Robertson is monitoring this from London. and we talked about, you know, future proofing the alliance. What are the goals here for Tony Blinken, the Secretary of State?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is a big day. Obviously his first visit to NATO headquarters as Secretary of State. He said that this is a pivotal moment, this is all about rebuilding and reinforcing the transatlantic alliance. This is very clearly a message coming from the Biden administration here to work on a clear basis with allies and partners in Europe.

Russia, the biggest sort of security threat they face at the moment. Afghanistan is going to be a big topic this morning. He noted, Secretary Blinken noted that President Biden has said this May 1st withdrawal for all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan is going to be hard to achieve. Blinken said, you know, we went in together, we adjusted together, and that we'll leave together but his mission at NATO was to listen and consult with other NATO partners and to take that information back to President Biden to help him inform his decision about what troop adjustments need to be made in Afghanistan.

Also talking point for the Secretary of State today will be his meeting with the German foreign minister, his counterpart and on that Nord Stream II, the gas pipeline that links Russia direct to Germany, that came up. This is what the Secretary of State had to say on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: President Biden has been very clear in saying that he believes the pipeline is a bad idea, bad for Europe, bad for the United States. Ultimately, it's in contradiction to the EU's own energy security goals. It has the potential to undermine the interests of Ukraine, Poland, a number of other close partners or allies and I'm sure I will have an opportunity to reiterate that.

[04:50:00]

Including the law in the United States which requires us to sanction companies participating in the efforts to complete the pipeline.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON (on camera): So I think we can expect a round to be a topic of discussion as well later today, not in the NATO context but there will be a separate meeting between the German, French, British foreign ministers along with Secretary Blinken. So that will be a topic for discussion, too.

ROMANS: All right, Nic Robertson for us in London. Thank you, Nic -- Laura.

JARRETT: All right, Russian President Vladimir Putin expected to get vaccinated against coronavirus today even though vaccines have been available in his country for months now. Only 4.3 percent of Russians have been fully vaccinated and Putin is helping to ramp up the process. Let's go live to Moscow and bring in CNN's Matthew Chance. Matthew, what's the latest at this hour?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we still don't know, Laura, whether Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, has actually had his jab of a Russian vaccine, there are three Russian vaccines that have been approved for use in this country. We are assured by the Kremlin it is going to be one of those three Russian vaccines, although they won't disclose which one for some reason.

But you're right, it is, you know, extraordinary that the president of a country that has one of the worst infection rates of COVID-19 anywhere in the world has waited so long before getting the jab himself. He is in his late 60s remember so he is plenty within the age group in order to get an early vaccine. And of course, Russia developed its first vaccine and approved it for use -- Sputnik V it's called -- back in August of last year.

The vaccine pickup in the country has been low indeed. There's a high degree of vaccine hesitancy in Russia, something like 40 percent of the population -- only 40 percent of the population said they would be willing to have it and the actual figures are much lower than that. Just over 7 million people out of 146 million of the entire population have had at least one injection with the double dose Russian vaccine.

Hopefully, Vladimir Putin's participation in this mass vaccination will help to make it more popular. Although the Kremlin have said this will be a private event. They say it's not going to be open to the public, not going to be televised, they're saying they are not going to release any pictures of it actually taking place -- Laura.

JARRETT: Very interesting that he is not going to do it publicly. Sounds very much like someone else we know here, a former president in the United States. Matthew Chance, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right, 52 minutes past the hour. DoorDash will let you order at home COVID-19 testing kits delivered straight to your door. CNN business next.

[04:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JARRETT: Former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell saying the quiet part out loud in a new court filing. Her lawyers argue she can't be sued for defamation because her voter fraud claims were so outrageous, no reasonable person would have believed them. Powell is facing billion dollar lawsuits after falsely accusing voting technology companies of rigging the 2020 election. Her lawyers say that those claims were clearly her own opinions and legal theories and the company's descriptions of his statements as wild and outlandish support the idea that no one would believe her.

ROMANS: Auto makers hit hard by a global shortage of computer chips. That's delaying pickup trucks and SUVs. Here's what happened. The pandemic cut demand for new cars, so auto makers cut their orders for computer chips. But demand surged for computers and gaming systems causing a shortage when auto production ramped back up.

Auto makers were using the chips they had on hand to keep building their cars, now they're having trouble delivering completed vehicles to dealers. Ford has started building the F-150 -- the nation's bestselling vehicle --without some of the chips it needs. It will park those unfinished trucks while they wait for the missing chips to arrive. It has also temporarily shut down one of three shifts at a plate in Kentucky.

General Motors has kept three plants in North America shut down since early February because of the shortage. They will say close add the least into next month. Ford and GM both warned the shortage will reduce their earnings by more than a billion dollars this year.

DoorDash is joining the effort to make testing for coronavirus more accessible. The company said it will start same-day deliveries of FDA authorized COVID-19 test collection kits across the country. DoorDash has teamed up with the digital health company's Vault Health and Everly Well for this initiative. DoorDash says the testing kits will be available in a dozen Dash mart locations across the country, including Baltimore, Chicago and Phoenix. The plan is to expand to more cities later this year.

EARLY START continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ROMANS: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START, I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Tuesday, March 23rd, it's 5:00 a.m. here in New York. And we begin this morning with the breaking news from Boulder, Colorado, where authorities say a gunman opened fire at the King Sooper supermarket killing ten people including a police officer. A suspect was taken into custody and is being treated for his injuries, we're told. So far police not discussing a motive for this attack but witnesses at the scene describe something just harrowing as gunfire sent shoppers running for their lives. One person recorded this moment at the entrance of the store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know if there is a shooter, active shooter somewhere. Could be in the store.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just went in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He went in the store?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is still here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. Guys, we have people down inside King's Soopers. Look, there's -- holy (BLEEP). (BLEEP).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: You can hear the panic in that man's voice. Other witnesses and family members told CNN's Don Lemon what happened inside that store.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN BOROWSKI, KING SOOPERS ATTACK WITNESS: The first shot was confusing, maybe it was somebody dropped something. Second shot came and then after that it was bam, bam, bam, and I was running, and I heard maybe eight shots. Somebody else said 13, but who is really counting at that point. I don't remember anyone screaming, I don't remember anybody hysterically yelling, it was just go, go, go, get out of there.

STEVEN MCHUGH, FAMILY WAS AT KING SOOPERS DURING SHOOTING: They were right there from the first shot to the last and Paul was in line to go get a COVID shot. Third person in line and that's when at least one shooter came in and killed the woman at the front of the line in front of him. I think thankfully the girls didn't see that. They were on the phone, with their other grandmother, and they all then -- eight shots in a row. There may have been as many as 50 or 60 shots according to my son-in-law.